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As the beginning of the story describes, David Copperfield has many hard
childhood experiences, such as Dickens's own humiliating days spent working in
the blackening factory in London. The despair and humiliation that he suffered
there and the rejection of his parents and the loss of all his hopes of
self-fulfillment are relived through David in this book. Dickens tells his own
story well through the life of David Copperfield. He isn't looking for the
readers' sympathy. He simply wants the reader to understand that just because he
had a rough life doesn't mean it was a bad one. A journey into adulthood,
something that everyone must go through, although it may be easier for some than
others. Charles Dickens, in David Copperfield, describes this journey as he
makes the reader a vital part of David Copperfield's life. This journey is a
theme in this novel as well as David's longing for what is lost in the past and
the humiliation he feels from being an orphan. Dickens has developed his
character, David, into a hero much like he wanted to be remembered as (Andreola
3). Many critics today think he achieved that goal! Charles Dickens also wrote
many other books throughout his creative writing career. In his book A Tale of
Two Cities, Dickens causes the reader to ask what the novel is really about,
just what the driving theme is. Although each reader will come up with a
different answer to this question, most of the answers fall into one of three
categories. Some readers will say that this novel is about the different
personalities of the many different and well-described characters throughout his
novel. The story portrays a French physician, Dr. Manette, who has been wrongly
put into prison in the Bastille for nearly eighteen years before the story even
begins (Constable 24).
Because he witnessed the aftermath of a crime that was
committed by two other fellows, the doctor was thrown into prison. The entire
prison experience is something that he can never fully shake free from. In
moments of stress throughout the novel Dr. Manette often goes insane, a result
of his time in prison. The story also concerns a man by the name of Jarvis
Lorry, who, in the beginning of the book, is on his way to retrieve the doctor
from the prison (Constable 13). Another group of readers will believe that this
book is about the French Revolution. Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities starts out
in 1775 while the Revolution was still in its underground preliminary stages.
The book covers eighteen years ending with one of the bloodiest battles, the
Reign of Terror in 1973. Although most of the major revolution events take place
off stage in the novel, they do have a major effect on the lives of the
characters in the story. It would certainly be no error to say the events of the
French Revolution, which make up so much of the setting in this novel, is what
the theme of the novel really is (Carey 11). The third category of readers will
say the novel's theme is beyond the fictional characters and historical events
and is more of a symbol. These readers will see that the actions relate to
Dickens's vision of life and the reason for it. This group will say that the
book presents a picture of human life using the dramatic language of characters
and their actions (Carey 12).
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